Shoes which are regarded as one of the most important necessities of everyday life are divided into a plurality of kinds depending upon their use. Whatever the use of shoes may be, most shoes are provided with shoelace for fastening the shoes to the feet.
Of course, the shoes must have appropriate sizes for preventing the shoes from coming off of the feet. While it is the norm that the shoelace are loosely knotted for convenience when putting on and taking off the shoes, it is known in the art to be preferable in view of health of the feet that the shoelace be tightened to properly fit the shoes on the feet, so long as the shoes do not excessively compress the feet.
In this regard, since it is very cumbersome to tighten and loosen shoelace every time when putting on and taking off shoes, with the exception of particular cases, the shoes are generally put on and taken off in a state in which the shoelace are maintained in a knotted state. Nevertheless, since the shoelace can come undone during normal walking on a street, inconvenience may be caused in that it is necessary to stop walking and re-tie the shoelace. Even when the shoelace is not undone, since both ends of the shoelace are not appropriately fastened, an untidy external appearance may result. This is especially true for long shoelace.
Moreover, it is not easy for children below early primary school ages or for old persons to properly tighten or loosen shoelace. Specifically, in the case of athletes or persons who participate in various sports such as mountain climbing, cycling, and so on, if the shoelace comes undone due to excessive movement or being caught by foreign objects, undesirable results, such as a decrease in performance and the occurrence of accidents can result. Therefore, it is preferable to reliably prevent the shoelace from coming undone.
Meanwhile, when taking a rest after exercising, it is necessary to easily loosen the tightened shoelace to ensure a sufficient rest. In this regard, it is most preferred that a shoelace be easily tightened, the tightened state of the shoelace be reliably maintained, and then, the shoelace be easily loosened as the occasion demands.
In order to ensure easy tightening and loosening of the shoelace, a plurality of shoelace tightening devices have been disclosed in the art. Korean Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 1998-69037 describes a shoelace tightening device. The shoelace tightening device comprises a plate which has a T-shaped wall and winding protrusions. The T-shaped wall is defined with grooves and holes through which the shoelace can pass.
In the shoelace tightening device, the shoelace is tightened by passing through the grooves and holes and being wound around the winding protrusions such that the tightened shoelace is prevented from being unintentionally loosened. However, since the shoelace must be tightened through the holes and grooves and around the winding protrusions which are arranged closely to one another, it is not easy for children or old persons to use the shoelace tightening device.
In Korean Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 1999-2342, there is disclosed a lever type device. This lever type device has a drawback in that, since a shoelace can be tightened only within a range through which a lever can rotate, a tightening range of the shoelace cannot but be decreased.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 213470 in the name of the present applicant discloses a shoelace winder which uses a ratchet wheel. The shoelace winder is constructed in a manner such that four ends of two shoelace which extend in different directions are wound on an outer surface of a rotation shaft. The shoelace winder suffers from defects in that, since two of the four ends of the shoelace are wound on the rotation shaft after being bent through an angle of about 90° in a case, a winding operation of the shoelace cannot be implemented in a smooth manner. Also, because the four ends of the shoelace are concentratedly wound on a portion of the rotation shaft, unwinding operation of the shoelace cannot be implemented in a smooth manner. Moreover, as the volume of the portion of the rotation shaft on which the shoelace is concentratedly wound increases, the size of the entire shoelace winder increases.
Further, in Korean Utility Model Registration No. 232518, there is disclosed an automatic shoelace adjustment device which uses a ratchet gear structure. The device serves as a shoelace tightening device which comprises a disc-shaped handle provided with a ratchet gear. While this type of shoelace tightening device improves convenience when compared to the above-described shoelace tightening devices, since a switch for restraining rotation of the ratchet gear is operated in the forward and rearward direction outside the ratchet gear, the length of the entire shoelace tightening device cannot but be increased, and the outer appearance of a shoe is deteriorated. Also, if the tongue of a shoe has a short length, the shoelace tightening device cannot be properly attached to the tongue.